It's true, weight lifting can enlarge your tiny veins!

Friday, April 10, 2009

While I say weight lifting, I believe resistance strength training will work as well. (Using resistance bands. I am doing the Low-Mount exercises and have even created a few while I am using the band anyway.)

My walking buddy is a disabled navy veteran and she told me that years ago she was advised while still serving to use small weights to enlarge her veins. Well, she didn't and I hadn't been. This is the only difference between my last blood donation and the one on Tuesday.

She remembered it today when I was showing her how my veins now pop up in the crux of my elbow!

Thank you for sharing! I have blood work done every 3 months and they leave me so bruised by trying so many different spots trying to get a big enough vein. I will try a little weight lifting to see if it makes a difference for my next appointment!

I guess I wasn't imagining things then!! I have always had tiny baby veins and have been told by doctors that I can't give blood because of them being so small, it's almost impossible for them to get any blood out of me. Therefore I have always hated having to have bloodwork done! But when I was doing strength training last year and using hand weights, I noticed after a couple of months that my veins were a lot more noticeable!!